Three (not so) Little Words
by littleredkels
Summary: He was Tony Stark. Mouthing off was as natural as breathing. So when there wasn't as much chatter as normal coming through the com in his cowl, Steve felt rather justified to worry. Except. Well… He wasn't exactly worrying. It was a lot more akin to panic.


**This is my first Superhusbands fic, so I hope it's recieved well. Not beta'd but I have read over it a few times, sorry if there are still typos or anything. Uh. I hope you guys enjoy it! Let me know what you think!**

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He was Tony Stark. Mouthing off was as natural as breathing. So when there wasn't as much chatter as normal coming through the com in his cowl, Steve felt rather justified to worry.

Except. Well… He wasn't exactly worrying. It was a lot more akin to panic.

"Natasha, can you see him from the jet?"

"For the fifth time, Steve, I don't see anything but dust settling."

"Barton?"

"Negative."

"Dammit, Stark, do you read me?"

Nothing but silence.

In the aftermath of the battle, the city of New York had gone eerily quiet. Made more so foreboding by the lack of general boasting about getting the best kill or how Iron Man had saved Hawkeye's ass "yet again". No, the link in his ear remained dead silent, the lack of noise nearly deafening.

"…Tony, come on." Barton's voice sounded nearly forlorn and he could hear the measured breaths Natasha was taking. They were worried. They were all worried, but it was Steve who was on the ground and literally up turning cars in search for that familiar red and gold suit.

"Stark? Stark! Tony!" He ran. As hard as his legs could carry him he ran around at least ten city blocks before he was met by a sight that stopped his heart in his chest.

For a brief moment he was reminded of the days when he was young. How simply running to the end of the drive to retrieve the mail had been a task that managed to take his breath away and have him wheezing while his mother gave him yet another asthma treatment. The burning in his chest was much the same now, watching Thor walking towards him carrying a body. A suit of armor that was… Entirely too limp looking for something made entirely of metal…

"Tony…"

"I am sorry, Captain. He appears to be… Rather unresponsive. "

"Rogers, you got him?"

"I— Thor has—He— Shit."

As he approached the Asgardian, he tore the cowl from his head, the sudden conversation of calling SHIELD medics making his stomach churn in a way that made him almost positive he was going to be sick. But he held it together. At least until he had pried the Iron Man suit from Thor's grip. Set him down on the ground.

He had to hold it together. To be the leader. But there was nothing he could do to stop the seizing in his chest. Not a word that he could say past the lump in his throat. Suddenly it was the battle with Loki all over again. Watching Tony free fall out of the portal, waiting for him to come crashing down only to be caught by the Hulk and brought down to safety.

Carefully, he pried the face shield off the suit, gently set it down next to where he was kneeling and stared into the face that was grimy with sweat and blood from a gash above his eyebrow, a busted lip, a brilliant purple bruise forming at his temple and…

"Tony, please…"

The only sense of comfort at this point was the glow of the arc reactor shining in the center of the armor's chest. Before it had been completely extinguished. And yet…

There was no sign that the man in the suit was breathing. What if it had nothing to do with the reactor? What if there were internal injuries? Was he bleeding? Was he broken anywhere? Was he in pain? Was he—

"Y'know, anguish really isn't your best look, Cap."

Steve blinked at the voice, gruff and scratchy but still clear, even over the pounding of his own heart in his ears. His eyes darted up to Tony's face and, sure enough, his damn eyes were open, looking tired but hell, he was breathing. He was talking and… "Do you have to smirk at me like that all the damn time?"

"Only when you're being super retro style adorable." Tony quipped, surprisingly easily. "And you're tippin' the scale today, if I'm honest."

"You're always honest. Painfully so."

"It's one of my better talents, don't you think?" Slowly, he forced himself to sit up, aided by Steve's hand on his back, though he did make an effort to shake it off at first, but the Super Solider was having none ofit.

Steve rolled his eyes, only letting go of the man in front of him after he was upright, wiping at the sweat on his brow with the back of his gloved hand. "I'd argue with you, but it wouldn't get me anywhere."

"Stubbornness is always a brilliant trait of mine, don't you think?"

"I think you should stop jumping in the line of fire, is what I think."

"I have the armor here, Gramps. I'm more equipped to—"

"You're still human, Tony! Jesus, you can't just do things like that without—"

"Gasp! Captain America taking the Lord's name in vain. Now I really have seen it all."

"Would you stop trying to pretend that this is okay?!"

Entirely too easily, Tony shrugged. "I'm alive, aren't I?"

"Barely." There was a note of something very near desperation in Steve's voice as he gazed sternly into the other man's eyes.

"Were you worried, Cap?" He chided, a small grin stretching the corners of his lips.

This managed to stop the man in his tracks. Worried? Was he worried?!"Worried—Are you kidding me?! Of course I was worried, Tony! How can I not be worried when the man that I love isn't responding and just—"

He would give anything in the world to take back those words.

If there was one thing he knew, that anyone knew, it was that Tony Stark did not do the "L" word. No matter how he actually felt. In the course of their relationship, despite the time lapse, Steve had never heard the words "I love you" pass his lover's lips, though he did very well to express the feelings without having to say so. And so Steve had never bothered saying them. If it made Tony uncomfortable, he was just fine expressing his love in other ways. Normally very scandalous ways, but that was neither here nor there.

"I didn't think it was possible for you to be that pale."

Again, he was brought back to the present by the sound of that familiar voice, though this time lacking a bit of the rasp it had possessed only moments ago. "I—Tony, listen—"

He snorted. The man who he'd thought was dead less than five minutes ago snorted a laugh at him and placed a hand still wrapped in the shining red gauntlet on his shoulder. Meeting his eyes, Steve noticed something there. Something he'd seen a handful of times but it was more… Powerful. More intense than before. It made his heart catch in his chest again, though this time it wasn't painful. No, this time it was met with a flutter against his ribs as that over confident grin melted its way into a smile. A genuine honest-to-God smile.

The next thing Steve knew, there was a pair of lips pressed firmly against his own and if he were a bit less frenzied in his thoughts, he might have protested. Pulled away and told Tony that now was neither the time nor the place. Instead he simply breathed a long sigh out through his nose and all but melted into the kiss.

They stayed that way for what must have been hours. Or maybe just a few seconds. Steve honestly had no need to figure out the actual lapse in time. All he wanted to do was stare into those eyes. Those eyes that were still looking at him with that same sort of intensity. "Tony—"

"I love you too. Now help me up. I need a shower and I'm-so-glad-you're-alive sex in the worst way."


End file.
